Archives for January 2011

In traditional print, writer and reader have static conversation, a disconnected relationship. The writer set forth ideas; then later in another context, the reader reads and considers the ideas. In social media, the conversation is often immediate, sometimes fleeting. People on our blogs or on Twitter read what we write, think about (or not), and add their response, taking the original thought to new places.

The beauty of this dynamic social interchange is that it the original thoughts can be developed, become deeper and broader through community participation.

This week I published a thought piece called 27 Things to Know Before You Work in Social Media, an audience, thoughtful, intelligent, experienced readers — you — contributed thoughts and taking the original to a higher level. Those thoughts deserve a discussion of their own.

Social Media for Business Is Still Business

Though the ROI isn’t always initially apparent, it’s naive to assume that it’s a no return endeavor. Just as a trade show, sales call, or lunch with client can appear to be something else, the relationships forged through social networks serve customers, solve problems, and develop new business. They also require strategy, experience, expertise, execution and customer care — internal and external, online and offline.

… the uncertainty of it allâitâs sometimes the hardest part of trying to convince people of the value when things are changing at the speed of light. …
— Successful-Blog who is @MikeCassidyAZ on Twitter.

I would add that there is nothing virtual about social media. It is in fact grounded in real business application and acumen. Understanding what you are trying to achieve is always the first step. Keep that in mind, be transparent, true and efficient and the rest will follow.
The other truth is to set expectations and practices according to how well you are resourced. If you are committing yourself to an online profile, ensure you have the resources to maintain, manage and effectively meet the expectations you are creating.
— Alasdair Munn who is @ajmunn on Twitter.

My biggest issue is convincing people itâs worth it. There is ROI just like any other form of customer satisfaction has ROI- not always direct.

Another issue is that people think that because they donât âgetâ social media that itâs going to disappear.
— @brashley on Twitter.

There is such frustration when walking into a room of âtraditionalâ business professionals and advocating for âsocialâ mediaâ¦and such potential too. Itâs tricky using the potential as enough motivation to battle the frustration. …
— Shayna Walker who is @weddlady on Twitter.

Managing Vocabulary and Expectations.

As we bring this all together, we have the disadvantage of speaking the same language — our conversations rife with hidden assumptions that set conflicting expectations. We straddle two cultures with two similar, but not equivalent vocabularies.

As time passes, we gain experience, our words get clearer and closer. Two years ago, when we said “community” offline, people thought “church” or “Omaha, Nebraska.” Aligning our vocabulary and our expectations can solve problems, decrease conflict, and lower negative perceptions.

I agree with the desire to lose the Social Media title. I tend to look at the process with a wider lens. Itâs just part of the digital puzzle that includes optimizing your web site, paid search, integration with non web properties, location and mobile. …
— Gordon Phillips who is @gophillips on Twitter.

One of the things I ponder recently is how to describe what I do when so using the phrase âsocial media marketingâ is considered by people within the social media and marketing to be inaccurate and yet people from outside (current and potential clients) use that phrase to describe what they want help with.

The fast pace of e digital world and the constant arrivals of new tools and changes in the landscape make it a compelling and exciting place to work. But bridging the gap can be confusing and knowing what words to use to convey has me tied up in knots at times.
— Allen Mireles who is @AllenMireles on Twitter.

I think people need to be careful about false expectations. Also, if youâre not flexible by nature, this might not be the right area of work. Being able to roll with the punches and adjust at a momentâs notice are definite temperament requirements.
— Keri Jo Raz who is @KeriJoRaz on Twitter.

Personally investing and detaching really hit home, and Nos. 17 and 19, too. We are in uncharted waters here and itâs nice to know we are all experiencing the frustrations and rewards together.
— Susan Young who is @sueyoungmedia on Twitter.

The Opportunity Is What the Tools Can Do

Explaining that the tools aren’t the end game is the first goal and problem. Simply picking up the tools doesn’t get us anywhere, any more than routing through a huge red chest of workman’s tools. The tool chest isn’t the end game, the opportunity is what a craftsman can do with the tools. Not everyone is ready to see the house that a gifted team might build, but those that do have the advantage.

28. Just because you use the tools personally doesnât mean you have a grasp on how to leverage them for a business.

29. Unless you start at a strong brand or within a strong community it takes more offline work than online work to be great at your job. If you donât have offline skills then don’t bother applying to do online work.

30. You will need to engage, interact and drive your businesses community to action; not the âsocial mediaâ people you follow and talk to all day. There is a difference.

The unfortunate issue I see with [legitimate] social media experts and those who truly are knowledgeable in the field is that, like real estate, too many people are able to claim to be experts. How do you raise the bar so the many wannabees do not dilute the vocation?
— Susie Blackmon who is @SusieBlackmon on Twitter.

Learning, Evolving, and Adding Value Is the New Expertise

Learning, evolving and adding value with the speed of the Internet is the new expertise. Those who are able to capture, filter, translate, curate, package and deliver valuable resonating messages; those who connect people, content, and context matching urgency to situations will win the game. They will attract both loyal communities and easily enlist crowds of two-minute volunteers to pass on faster, smaller messages when they need them.

Social media sometimes feels like youâre in a partially lit tunnel going at lightspeed with things coming at you to catch, handle and pass on whilst also battling against a strange crosswind of resistance and misunderstanding. all the while, youâre commentating on yourself for the benefit of othersâ¦
— Serena who is @serenasnoad on Twitter.

… no matter how many hours you spend doing SM, you can never know everything about it. SM changes so rapidly and constantly that it is next to impossible to keep up with each new idea, blog, platform, service, etc. … Nicole Ott who is @nicolelynnott on Twitter.

Learning what is meaningful and significant is more important than saying or following the meaningless and insignificant 🙂
—Jay Deragon who is @ConversCurrency on Twitter.

… I have had a few internships where I am the go-to person regarding the social media strategy. And I love that. Although many people may still be skeptics, I am embracing everything I can, and hopefully when I do go into the working-girl world I can bring something new and different to the table.
— Selena Larson who is @selenalarsonpr on Twitter.

I have two possible additions –

– that it takes about a year of listening, watching, absorbing and doing it before you really having any idea what it is you are doing

– that, at any given moment, the vast sea of âthings needing attentionâ or âthings to work on nextâ or âthings I want to exploreâ is so great, focus and traction can be the biggest challenges of all.
–Judi Young who is @ohyesshecan on Twitter.

Think Community Not Skillset

Social business is about the people, not the message. It’s a philosophy of business — way of thinking and seeing — that can’t be contained or fully realized in a single campaign or a single department. These new tools make the pace faster and easier. They also allow us to connect with more people. Our challenge is to fill those connections with meaning — to meet where our values align and use those connections to build better businesses together.

Social media is an interconnected, symbiotic organism comprised of flesh and blood people – people with hopes, goals, fears, dreams, and a need to be heard.

Social Media is a community, not a commercial. Just as one wouldnât show up to a party empty handed, you donât show up online with your hand out. Itâs permission-based – you have to earn respect among followers. The old adage remains true, âSeek first to understand, then to be understood.â Listen, share, engage, then speak.
— Tami Belt who is @1bluecube on Twitter.

I really hope more people will âgetâ social media soon, as these 27 make it a very difficult job. I too tell my family something else and my friends from university seem to think I âplay with facebookâ for a living.
— @Simpli_B on Twitter.

I believe Social Media is a journey, not destination! And the more youâre open to the twists and turns, the more possibility and excitement there are. Itâs just that when a majority of an organizations people donât use SM, you have to then rethink who is SM for and how to reach those younger folks. And that requires energy back on their end âoffline.â
— Elizabeth Doherty Thomas who is @MarriageKids on Twitter.

Social Media Is Community Amplified

Anyone in management, communications, or a business that serves people has experienced more than a few of these frustrations. Most of them are seated in the naturally occurring communication issues that humans have when we interact. Any interdepartmental team could make their own list that would be similar to this one. Any community would be easier to manage if it didn’t involve people.

Iâm pretty sure that in order to comprehend this list and be able to comment means that I must work in the same environment. I do.

Social media is still so new and still in a state of constant evolution. People donât understand it so they assume and believe misinformation as truth.

To understand the community, you need to live in the community. When you spend more time online than you do off, the lines get blurry. Those of us on the inside still understand and relate.
— Chris Eh Young who is @Chris_Eh_Young on Twitter.

… I confess that by the time I reached #7 I was thinking that most of these insights describe my career in public relations. the person who creates, buys, places an ad is easily understood. The behind-the-scene nuances of massaging a message and crisis management are often (deliberately) opaque.
— Karen Malone Wright who is @KarenMW on Twitter.

… Social media is all about relationships. … you have to be personally invested and detached at the same time. Social media is more than just a tweet or a Facebook post; itâs about building lasting relationships with people. For people that donât fully understand social media, it can be a difficult concept to understand.

Yes social media is your job. Yes you sometimes seem more interested in your online friends than your offline ones. But the real reason for this is that if you are doing your job well, then you have built a relationship with these people that you canât just turn off at the end of the day.
— Sean Clanton who is @parallelic on Twitter.

I might also add that sometimes being social 24-7 can feel very lonely since you have each foot in a different world, you technically belong to both and neither. Also, your online friends might lose any sense of personal loyalty and publicly bitch about your company as if they were a stranger to you.

Youâre right though â it is totally worth it when you see things start to work well, when you can actually see lightbulbs go off in other peoplesâ heads and they share good ideas that werenât even on your radar. Social really can make everything we do as a business better and more meaningful and itâs nice to be someone working on that side of the equation.
— Shannon Paul who is @ShannonPaul on Twitter.

Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

Lead with relationships not the tools. If you wonder what that means listen more. When you hear a sentence with the words, social media, inside it. Replace “social media” with the word, telephone, and you’ll have idea where we’ve been and we’re going. The tools are what allow us to connect. It’s our minds and our hearts that get us to the core of the matter where we agree – where we can align our goals and work together on something we can’t build alone.

Like this blog post, we are building this social media culture together …

It was like you were reading my soul! Thanks for the reminder that Iâm not the only one with these experiences and ups and downs.
— Vanessa Williams who is @williamsvanessa on Twitter.

Wow. Jumping on the bandwagon to agree with everyone elseâ¦ just wanted to take the time to let you know lots of people are paying attention. My one response probably covers about 23 others that didnât take the time to respond.
— Jason Terry who is @JasonTerry on Twitter.

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

A Guest Post by
Shawn Hessinger

As the experts and this blog often state, youâre only a stranger once. Youâre a stranger up until the moment you extend your hand and introduce yourself. From there, you begin the process of becoming an acquaintance, and eventually, a friend. And social media has taught us thatâs where we want to be. People donât want to do business with logos anymore. Perhaps they never did. They want to do business with people they know, people in their network. To get in their network, you start by saying hello. You engage.

I know. In recent months youâve no doubt heard the term âengagementâ more times than you can recall. Every social media expert wants to lecture you on its importance. But what does it all mean? As a marketing professional, a blogger, an entrepreneur â what types of customer engagement should you be worrying about, and how can you be sure youâre doing enough to not just stop being a stranger, but to start becoming a friend?

Below youâll find a quick checklist to help you pinpoint opportunities and create new customer touch points.

Are you creating content?

Creating content on a consistent basis is one of the most powerful ways to engage your audience. It gives them something to engage with, while also showing your interest in getting to know them. The simple fact that youâve penned that blog post, created that resource, or published that newsletter tells your audience you want to be part of the conversation, and you want to create a different type of relationship with them. Your post is your offering to a more intimate conversation. How you choose to create content is up to you. Whether you start a WordPress blog, a Tumblr account or create videos over at YouTube, is your choice. What matters is that you create content. That you give your customers (and potential customers) something to introduce them to your brand, and that shows them what you believe in. The first step of engaging is bringing something to the party.

Are you sharing other content?

Creating good content on your own site is only the first step in becoming part of your community and building awareness for your brand. The second step requires realizing that itâs not all about you and doing your part to lift up the people around you. You do this by sharing other peopleâs content and promoting their brand. For example, I act as the community manager at BizSugar, a social network focused around connecting small business owners and promoting their content. Itâs a place where bloggers, entrepreneurs and others go to lift up other people, and the results of those interactions have been pretty fantastic. Engaging with others doesnât always mean you go in talking about yourself. Sometimes it means talking about them. In fact, ideally, thatâs what it means more often than not.

Some other ways to promote others?

Share links to your network on services like Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Recommend or submit great content to social networks like Sphinn (http://sphinn.com/) or BizSugar.

Create new content that promotes theirs, perhaps in the form of a YouTube video or a follow-up blog post.

Again, the medium you choose to use isnât whatâs important. Itâs that youâre taking time to connect with your community in a way that is welcomed and shows itâs not all about you.

â¦Are you sharing it on your own site?

All the social media gurus will tell you that a great way to build your personal brand is through guest posting on other peopleâs blogs to leverage their audience. But what about your own site? Do you accept guest posts, or is it all you, all the time? This blog and Liz Strauss is a great example of a place that does engagement really well. Liz engages with her community by opening her home to them when appropriate, and creating a new level of trust between herself, her audience, and her guest authors. Itâs a relationship where everyone benefits, and itâs a powerful form of engagement.

Are you networking online?

Another important way to engage with your community is to go where the action is and talk to people. What are the popular blogs in your niche that house the industryâs most important conversations? Identify them and get involved. What industry-specific social networks does your audience gravitate to? If you find theyâre members of Third Tribe , then you might want to become part of that community and establish yourself as a trusted resource. If theyâre active in certain Twitter chats, then you may want to block off time to participate in those. You canât do a good job engaging your audience if you never leave your front porch.

Are you creating a presence offline?

What? You didnât think you just had to engage online, did you? Donât forget to also reach out to customers in the real world. That means creating engagement touch points in-store, joining your local chamber of commerce, starting a local Meetup, and partnering with local vendors. This is a great way to strengthen relationships youâve made online, and to really get to know them as people.

The evolution of social media into marketing has changed the way brands must interact with customers. Itâs no longer good enough to offer a great product; now you must offer a great brand experience as well. And that experience starts with that first introduction, when a company extends its hand to engage with a larger community. Itâs when they stop being a stranger, and begin on the path to becoming a friend.

—–
Shawn Hessinger is Blogger & Chief Moderator at BizSugarbizsugar You can find her on Twitter as @bizsugar

A Tools Review by
Rahil Muzafar

Top 5 Facebook Apps for Business users

Facebook is becoming of more and more assistance for both normal users, and more importantly, the businesses. Myriad of opportunities and apps exist for businesses to take advantage and make their stay at Facebook even more productive. Facebook is no more just a simple place for friends to hang around and share information, picture, and videos with each other, it has evolved into a place, where people can not only make friends, but they can also conduct lots of business activities, market their businesses, and so on. If you are running a business, and you happen to be an avid user of Facebook, then you should start using Facebook for purposes other than the much hyped business networking, a plethora of business apps can make things much simpler than youâd expect.

Letâs take a look at some of the most practical business apps.

1. Pagemodo

Not many people have the aesthetic sense, skills (or time) to create remarkable pages for their valued businesses. Pagemodo is for these people, providing the facility of creating professional looking business pages with incredible ease, sans any technical or graphic expertise, and an option to publish these pages straight away. The custom design and templates offer a wide variety of options. Pagemodo offers both free and premium packages; paid members can use many special features while paying a very small cost.

2. RSS Graffiti

For people who have multiple pages and feeds, there canât be a better personal assistant than RSS graffiti (and it reminds you of that funny animal Giraffe, for me its reason enough to embrace this app). Apart from that, the application allows you to choose the combination between the feed that will be posted on the wall, page, profile, group, etc. You can choose exactly what shows up where, and how often. No matter who you are, or what type of business you are running, RSS graffiti will manage your feeds, in a hassle free and effective manner.

3. Facebook Files

This application lets you take your information wherever you go- which means you can access the files you need anywhere, as long as you have got access to your Facebook account. You can get up to 5 GB space for free which is extendable on demand. Share your files with your friends, colleagues, or subordinates, anywhere and everywhere. It serves like a mobile hard drive that you donât have to carry physically, and the best part is that thereâs no chance of losing it.

4. Networkedblogs

Blogging is all the rage these days, and this one is specifically meant for bloggers. Even though, there are a number of Facebook applications serving different purposes for bloggers, but this one is easily one of the best. This news reader application has the capability to pull up feeds from your blog, it lets you do stuff like adding a blog to your Facebook, read other peoplesâ blogs and comment. It also lets you post feed on your profile or business page. In short, this app will enable you to make the most of Facebook community consisting of millions of people and create the much needed buzz for your blog.

5. I Endorse

In the online world, there is no asset as valuable as having the credibility, and when it comes to enhancing credibility, thereâs nothing more effective than the testimonials coming from real people and real customers (believe it or not, but now the customers can differentiate between real testimonials and the bogus ones). âI Endorseâ eases the process of accumulating testimonials (they call them endorsements).

Special mention â Facebook Lists:

Create and maintain all kinds of lists you can think of, no more sticky notes strewn all over the office, no more losing the grocery list, no more forgetting birthdays, and you can also share your lists with friends, and they can add/ update/ manage things for you.
,

by Patty Azzarello

Using the stage

Iâm paraphrasing something that Simon Cowell said to an early contestant on American Idol.

You do not seem to be taking advantage of using this stage to perform for millions of people.Â You are acting more like this is a try-out than a performance.

I got to thinking about how people go about communicating, presenting, and behaving at work, and I think this is such an important point:

Are you performing when it counts?

â¦OrÂ are you just presenting, clarifying, and getting through the information?Â Are youÂ defensive â like this is a try-out or a test you need to pass?Â Or are you really owning it and using the opportunity to its full advantage?

Itâs a valuable insight:
Think of any communication as an opportunity to perform.

And I donât mean a shallow, disingenuous performance.Â Or one that is data and quality free.

I mean a performance that is compelling because you really care about it, you invest in how you will present not just what you present, because it matters to you personally to have an impact.

Make something happen.

Own the Outcome, not just the communication.

A good way to think about this is, what would you do differently if you were taking responsibility for the outcome and the actions this communication drives, not just the transmission of the information?

To turn a communication into a performance, you need to think about not only what you want to communicate in terms of the content, but how you will capture and hold their attention.

How will you motivate, interest or excite them?

What is the difference that you want this communication to make?

How will peopleâs point of view be altered if you succeed?

What will they do differently?

What will they remember about the topic? About you?

How will they be entertained or bored?

This is really one of those things that sets high achievers apart.

They have the ability to inspire others with their ideas â to cause motion and action with their words.Â They invest in the performance.

Here are some examples:
Performing a product roadmap presentation

If you are presenting a product roadmap recommendation, your goal is to share the information clearly. You can show timelines, technology choices, product feature additions, costs, competitive data, etc.

Get people excited.

But If you are performing a product roadmap presentation, your goal is to get people excited enough about the future that they give you the funding now, and continued support along the way.

You might include videos of user experiences and requests, physical prototypes, an interactive demo, or mock headlines that trounce the competition.
Performing a Business Review

For these, we always spend so much time on the data, presenting â covering every detail and defending against every hard question in the financials.

You are so much better off if you spend some time performing proactively, off the defense.

How are you going to inspire your reviewers most about the business?

What kinds of ideas will they personally respond to, over and above the numbers?

Why do you personally believe in this business?

What are the most exciting customer stories about how your products and services changed their business?

What is your top sales person doing that you are excited about replicating?

Iâm not suggesting that you skip the data and put on a song and dance show instead of managing the business.

But you can get a lot further with your stakeholders if you take responsibility to excite them with the right images and stories, instead of only boring them with a straightforward presentation of data, progress, and plans.
Performing a Budget Approval presentation

Not just numbers

If there was ever a reason to step up your performance, itâs to get your budget approved.

Loads of data and metrics will not help as much as exciting them about what they will get for the money, and showing them how much you are personally motivated to make a big impact on the business.

Even the most number conscious executives will respond to a compelling story about something that transforms the customer experience or the market.

If itâs a big deal, invest the energy to get your creative, marketing, and sales people to help you with content.
One good story can be worth a thousand spread sheet cells.

What works for you?

What are your techniques to make sure your presentations inspire the right outcomes? Share your thoughts in the comment box!

—–
Patty Azzarello works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. She has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello

New from Liz Strauss & GeniusShared Press

It can be hard to find focus sometimes. A few months ago, I was talking with a colleague who was having a hard time finding focus in their work. They spoke of feeling pulled in multiple directions and of many obligations — both at work and with their family. As I listened, I could hear […]

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend. We were sharing stories from days gone by about each of our lives. We hopped from one story to the next — based on what each of us were sharing. It was really an incredible discussion as we were each learning from the other […]

Everyone feels lost sometimes. I don’t think I know anyone who hasn’t been lost in their head at one time or another — even those folks overachieving all over the Internet. We all find those moments that we wonder about who we are and what we want. But the question is not whether everyone gets […]

I felt the more embarrassing fear of people’s judgment. When I decided it was time to write again, I avoided the computer for the longest time. On the rare occasion that I managed to sit myself down to write, I’d get caught up answering email or reading articles around the web, not doing writing I […]